How Technology is Changing Data Recording
Many industries depend on the accurate recording of ambient conditions. Data loggers are used to record:
- The temperature inside commercial refrigerators.
- The moisture content of soils.
- The electrical current running through sensitive machines.
- The pressure inside manufacturing tanks and airplanes.
- The humidity inside hospitals and historic library archives.
- … and many more.
Knowing, recording, and reporting this data empowers these enterprises to comply with regulations and confirm the safety and efficiency of operations.
This has been true for decades. For example, food industry professionals—and people in general—knew that if your refrigerator got too warm inside, your meat products were no longer safe to eat.
But data recording itself has come a long way. Technological advancements have made data loggers smaller, more accurate, more durable, and even more powerful.
How Data Recording Is Changing
Data recording used to be cumbersome and prohibitively expensive. Advanced data loggers have put the power of compliant, reliable data recording in the hands of enterprises both large and small. Here’s how data loggers have gotten better and better at their critical jobs.
More Powerful Sensors
Every data logger contains a sensor—an element capable of detecting the condition the logger is designed to detect (temperature, pressure, voltage, etc.). Over time, this technology has dramatically improved, allowing the measurements taken by the data logger to be more precise and accurate than ever before.
For example, some of the most accurate temperature loggers use resistant temperature detection (RTD). An RTD detector incorporates a piece of platinum and copper or nickel wire wrapped around a piece of ceramic or glass. By measuring the speed of electrons passing through the wire, the sensor can record a precise temperature down to many decimals.
Digital Storage
Early data recording was performed by chart recorders, which used vibrating pens to record data fluctuations in the form of lines drawn on paper tape.
Ingenious as it may have been at the time, digital data storage has made this primitive form of data monitoring obsolete. Data storage devices like flash drives and SD cards, familiar to consumers for their role in personal computing, allow companies like Dickson to provide data loggers to store much more data in a much smaller space.
Battery-Powered
The use of battery power has introduced flexibility and portability into the data logging world. Advances in lithium battery technology allow data loggers to operate reliably for longer and longer.
Modular Sensors
The sensors on data loggers have not only gotten better; advances in interchangeable parts and modular interfaces have given rise to data loggers that can be adapted to any purpose you need.
For example, you could use the same data logger to record temperature or pressure, simply by replacing the modular sensor attachment. Additionally, if the sensor fails, it is easy to replace.
LCDs and TouchScreens
LCD screens have made data loggers easier to interact with—intuitive operating systems with user-friendly digital and graphic interfaces.
Touchscreen technology has streamlined data logger interface even further, providing an even more intuitive user experience.
USB and Wireless Monitoring
Digital data loggers became easier to interact with as they adapted to interface with Universal Service Bus (USB) technology, allowing users to download data records directly to any computer with a familiar USB port.
User interaction got even better and easier with the advent of wireless data loggers, which connect to WiFi-enabled devices to download data records without having to plug anything into anything. Some data loggers have even adapted to Cloud-based computing, bypassing the risk of storage failures by uploading the data record directly to online Cloud storage.
What’s Ahead for Data Recording?
As far as data loggers have come, there is still excitement on the horizon. The data recording industry continues to push forward with innovation in data logger technology. Watch for the data loggers of the future to include:
Remote Control
As data loggers become more and more user-friendly, expect data loggers to support remote-control calibration and downloading thanks to more widespread incorporation of wireless and cloud-based technology. Smartphones, tablets, and web apps may be the data logging platforms of the future.
Automatic Reporting of Data, Including Online
The easiest reports to compile are the ones that compile themselves. Expect future advanced data loggers to produce compliance reports with little or no user input. Data loggers with cloud computing may be able to broadcast real-time data to the cloud, including reports that can be coded into websites, especially for data of public interest like climate or seismic data.
Real-Time Alerts
A data logger may be able to tell you why an interruption, breakdown, or disaster occurred—the unsafe condition is recorded right there in the data log. Wouldn’t it be better, though, if the data logger warned you of those unsafe conditions in time to avert the interruption or disaster? Look for advanced data loggers to produce auditory alerts, as well as push notifications to mobile devices and emails alerting users of abnormal conditions.
Do I Really Need a High Tech Data Logger?
Industries that rely on accurate data monitoring for compliance, safety, and efficiency include:
- Healthcare and Life Sciences.
- Energy.
- Food Services.
- Warehousing.
- Manufacturing.
- Agriculture.
- Library Sciences.
- Material Sciences.
- Environmental Sciences.
- Aerospace.
An IT consulting Long Island company can provide you a high-tech data logger if your organization depends on precise, reliable, time-stamped measurements of interior or exterior ambient conditions—especially if those conditions must be reported to regulatory commissions for compliance and/or licensure.
Advances in technology have often included advances in affordability. The cost of not accurately recording your data can easily exceed the cost of even the most sophisticated data loggers.
Conclusion
Advances in data logging technology make it easier and more affordable than ever to record the kind of reliable, precise data that allow sophisticated enterprises to start up and operate safely and effectively.
Watch for future breakthroughs to make data loggers even better at their critical job—more precise, efficient, easy to install, and dependable for environmental monitoring and compliance needs.